Chairman Brent Cowie made that point yesterday, emphasising it was a preliminary view. He also announced a hearing into the matter was being adjourned, after three and a-half days.
The hearing is likely to resume for up to half a day either late this month or early next month.
"I think it’s probably our strong preference to reconvene."
The hearing opened in the Dunedin Municipal Chambers on Monday before Dr Cowie and commissioners Colin Weatherall and Waitaki district councillor Peter Garvan.
Dr Cowie said more dialogue, particularly between OceanaGold and the Department of Conservation, was required.
Improvement was needed to aspects of consent conditions proposed by the company, particularly over funding to be offered, linked to significant animal and plant habitat being "destroyed" in the proposed expansion, he said. OceanaGold wants to open a 63ha pit called Coronation North, which could result in a two- to three-year mine-life extension at Macraes, in East Otago.
OceanaGold has applied to construct Coronation North, extend the existing Coronation pit to 85ha and build a waste rock stack of up to 202million tonnes, covering 197ha. The company also wants a dam at Coal Creek.
Boundary overlaps mean the company needs resource consent from the Otago Regional Council, Waitaki District Council and Dunedin City Council, and the ORC is overseeing the process.
Company general manager Dale Oram has said the mining extension would contribute "significantly" to the economy, and the company would provide mitigation and compensation for "unavoidable effects" on the environment. Christchurch planning and resource consultant Andrew Purves yesterday presented a report to the commissioners, on behalf of the Dunedin City and Waitaki District Councils.
Later, asked by Dr Cowie if resource consent should be granted, Mr Purves said the matter of conditions was "pivotal".
In an earlier submission, former Waitaki district councillor Neil Roy, who has long farmed near Macraes, highlighted the legal standing of several roads in the area, including Matheson Rd, and emphasised the need to maintain public access.
In his report, Mr Purves said Mr Roy had no doubt been "very frustrated about the correctness or otherwise of the procedures used to close roads" for mining purposes. But the commissioners’ hands were "tied" in this case, "because all road stopping and temporary road closures are completed under other statutes".
These issues — including part of Golden Point Rd, between Horse Flat Road and the Golden Point Historic Reserve — would need to be pursued by Mr Roy through "other jurisdictions".
But the Resource Management Act allowed the commissioners to consider "timely reinstatement" of roads at an appropriate standard for public use.
The company was seeking that roads be reinstated after rehabilitation was completed, which was defined by the decommissioning of the silt ponds. This was an appropriate approach for Matheson Rd and Golden Point Rd above Horse Flat Rd, because of safety issues involving "large machinery carrying out rehabilitation", Mr Purves said. But it would be "preferable" if Golden Point Rd south of Horse Flat Rd was reinstated earlier, after pit excavations ceased, given it was well away from the mine site, and this was the piece of road of main concern to Mr Roy, because it was a "formed road used by the public".
